By John Richardson IS China’s polyethylene (PE) market going through a temporary lull or are we seeing a sea change in conditions that could spell problems for the rest of this year? This was the question, to paraphrase Hamlet, facing the global industry late last week as lacklustre post Chinese New Year (CNY) demand continued. […]
Asian Chemical Connections
Coal chemicals wave sweeps China
By Malini Hariharan A few months back the blog had expressed sceptism on a Chinese company’s plans for a methanol-to-olefins (MTO) project based on imported methanol. The economics of such projects appear doubtful but many Chinese companies are looking to go down the same road. In its annual review on China’s coal chemical industry, Consultancy […]
Polyolefin numbers look good
By Malini Hariharan Pic source: www.brandft.co.uk The blog is in undertaking the difficult task of collecting demand numbers for polyolefins across major Asian markets. Preliminary estimates show that demand growth has been quite healthy in the two major markets – China and India. Chinese polyethylene (PE) demand (measured as local production plus imports minus exports) […]
What’s next for PetroChina and Ineos?
By Malini Hariharan After months of talks, PetroChina finally signed a framework agreement with Ineos for partnerships in refining, trading and petrochemicals at Grangemouth in Scotland and Lavera in France. The companies will be working towards the formation of these ventures by end-June 2011. PetroChina’s parent China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC) and Ineos also signed […]
Methanol: China key to upbeat forecasts
By Malini Hariharan When it comes to methanol its all about China. Producers are expecting another strong year if Chinese demand remains robust. China’s appetite kept Asian spot prices in the $200-410/tonne range last year and the expectation is for prices to hover between $300-400/tonne this year, writes my colleague Heng Hui, ICIS pricing methanol […]
One more view on the cycle
By Malini Hariharan The debate on the next petrochemical upcycle is heating up. After confident forecasts of a “supercycle” the blog is increasingly hearing more cautious assessments Take the recent report from Credit Suisse which stresses that while conditions for a period of bumper margins are favourable there are still many uncertainties. Pic source: avalonwine.com […]
India PE in a tight spot
By Malini Hariharan It is not just China where polyethylene (PE) producers face problems. Indian producers have been struggling to place volumes as huge imports during the last couple of months have saturated the domestic market. PE import volumes were said to have hit a record high of 104,000 tonnes in October. And my colleague […]
The big PTA headache
By Malini Hariharan If sourcing PTA has been challenging this year, the bad news is that the situation is unlikely to improve for the next couple of years. Rapid polyester capacity expansion, especially in China and India, is already outpacing growth in PTA capacities and the situation is set to worsen. PTA producers, on the […]
China fuels another price bubble
By Malini Hariharan Speculative fever has struck the Chinese purified terephthalic acid (PTA) market with domestic prices soaring by 26% in just one week. PTA futures trading on the Zhejiang Commodity Exchange (ZCE) was suspended for the whole day Tuesday, after values soared by more than 10% in just three days, writes my colleague Becky […]
China MTO/MTP – one more project starts
By Malini Hariharan Shenhua Ningxia has finally produced onspec propylene at its new 470,000 tonnes/year methanol-to-propylene (MTP) plant after starting trial operations last month. This marks the successful start of China’s first MTP project, which is also the world’s largest. There is one more due by the end of the year -Datang Power’s 450,000 tonnes/year […]
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